176 
HOSSEIN. 
hearing of his retreat, invited him to take refuge amongst them ; and 
having proclaimed him, and unanimously received him as the lawful 
Caliph, they declared Yezid to be an usurper. Yezid no sooner heard 
this than he dispatched Abadullah, one of his captains, with troops to 
march against him. This officer having met Hossein in the plain of 
Kerbelah, on his road to Cufa, accompanied only by sixty-two persons 
of his family, killed him and all those with him, in the 61st year of the 
Hejra. 
The tragical termination of his life, commencing with his flight from 
Medina, and terminating with his death on the plain of Kerbelah, has 
been drawn up in the form of a drama, consisting of several parts, of 
which one is performed by actors on each successive day of the mourn¬ 
ing. The last part, which is appointed for the Rooz Catl, comprises 
the events of the day on which he met his death, and is acted with 
great pomp before the King in the largest square of the city. The sub¬ 
ject, which is full of affecting incidents, would of itself excite great 
interest in the breasts of a Christian audience; but allied as it is with 
all the religious and national feelings of the Persians, it awakens their 
strongest passions. Hossein would be a hero in our eyes ; in theirs he 
is a martyr. The vicissitudes of his life, his dangers on the desert, his 
fortitude, his invincible courage, and his devotedness at the hour of his 
death, are all circumstances upon which the Persians dwell with rapture, 
and which excite in them an enthusiasm not to be diminished by lapse 
of time. The celebration of this mourning keeps up in their minds the 
remembrance of those who destroyed him, and consequently their 
hatred for all Mussulmans who do not partake of their feelings. They 
execrate Yezid and curse Omar with such rancour, that it is necessary 
to have witnessed the scenes that are exhibited in their cities to judge 
of the degree of fanaticism which possesses them at this time. I have 
seen some of the most violent of them, as they vociferated Ya Hossein! 
walk about the streets almost naked, with only their loins covered, and 
their bodies streaming with blood by the voluntary cuts which they have 
given to themselves, either as acts of love, anguish, or mortification; 
Such must have been the cuttings of which we read in Holy Writ, 
